


Inside an East Side Dive

by Forlorn_Melody



Series: Rags To Ragged--The Times and Tribulations of Jane Shepard [1]
Category: Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: Drug Addiction, Earthborn (Mass Effect), F/M, Implied/Referenced Underage Prostitution, Kaidan Appreciation Week, Tenth Street Reds, red sand
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-17
Updated: 2017-11-17
Packaged: 2019-02-03 13:03:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,321
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12748863
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Forlorn_Melody/pseuds/Forlorn_Melody
Summary: Before the Normandy, before the Alliance, Kaidan Alenko hits rock bottom. He returns from Jump Zero, Canatix folds and Brain Camp shuts down--Kaidan finds himself drifting. He finds release in Red Sand; he finds himself in a East Side dive bar, near the headquarters of the Tenth Street Reds. There he has a chance encounter with the woman who would one day change his life.





	Inside an East Side Dive

**Author's Note:**

> I've had something along these lines floating in my brain for a while. Inspired by the prompts for Kaidan Appreciation Week 2017. (Not sure if this really fits any of those prompts, but hey.) This is set in the same universe as Never Meet Your Heroes and Double the Trouble.

“Get moving kid. You’re in the wrong place.” Kaidan had ducked inside the east side dive, only to come face to face—er face to _chest_ with the hugest bouncer he had ever seen.

“What do you want? A cover? My ID?” Kaidan backed up a step, digging out his wallet. He tried anyway, several credit cards and membership cards scattered on the ground before he could reach his ID. Damn his shaking hands. Reminding himself that he wouldn’t have to deal with it much longer, he bent down to grab the contents of his wallet.

The bouncer grabbed Kaidan by the collar of his jacket. “I said _get_. We don’t want your kind here.” He hoisted him off the floor. His breath reeked of cheap smokes and decay. “Go get your kicks somewhere _else_.”

Kaidan wracked his brain for a name. What was her name? All his brain would think about was sand. “Jane sent me!” Red sand. “She told me to meet her here!”

“Real funny, kid.” The bouncer reared back, preparing to launch him out the door. Kaidan braced himself for landing on the concrete.

“Wait!” That wasn’t Jane. Was it? No. This girl’s voice was deeper than Jane’s. Jane spoke with the crisp whiteness of winter while this girl’s words rolled off her tongue like a summer breeze.

The bouncer rolled his eyes, letting Kaidan hang in the air as he turned back to face her. “For?”

She didn’t look like much. Scrawny little thing. Probably a couple years younger than him. Her brown eyes glanced between him and the bouncer. “He’s with me.” She fidgeted, pushing her red bangs out of her face.

“Sure he is.”

“He is!” She stomped her foot emphatically, giving him a steady look. “Aren’t you…?”

“Kaidan,” He added helpfully.

“Kaidan came here to get his supply. His place’s too hot with his dad in town.”

“Uh huh.” The bouncer shook his head, but dropped Kaidan anyway. “He causes any trouble and I’m telling Caine about you _both_.”

“He won’t be a problem.” She looked at him pointedly. “Right?”

Kaidan stumbled to his feet, shaking his head vigorously. “No trouble here.”

She guided him away from the front door, past the bar and dance floor to one of the back rooms. Shutting the door behind them, she ‘locked’ the knob with the back of a chair. “Alright, kid. Why are you here?” Turning to face him, she leaned against the door and folded her arms.

“Kid? I’m older than you!” He backed up, only to run into a bed. Wait. Did she think this was? Oh no.

“Uh huh.”

Kaidan rubbed his face. “Fine. I came here for some red sand.”

“We don’t deal that here in the club. Too easy for the cops to pick up.”

“I know that!” He hated the desperate tone in his voice, but it couldn’t be helped. It had been days, and his body _needed_ that sand. “Jane stopped returning my calls. She was supposed to meet me two days ago.”

She blinked. “What’d she look like?”

“I dunno! Dark hair? About your height?”

“Not helpful, Kallen.”

“ _Kaidan_.”

“Whatever.”

“ Look, I don’t really remember faces. All I remember is that her name is Jane.”

She laughed, shifting on her feet. “You really don’t get it, do you?”

“Get what?” He stuffed his hands in his pockets, trying to control the shaking. His bones felt like they’d rattle right out of his body.

“ _Nearly_ every girl here goes by Jane. Only the big boss ladies go by something else.”

“Like the Ice Queen.” He’d heard stories. Artemis Rayne—most feared woman this side of Vancouver. Cross her path and you’d probably not live to tell about it.

“Yeah.” She stepped closer, and her voice dropped low. “How badly do you want that sand?” Her hand dipped into her pocket, and her fist closed around what sounded like a zip lock bag. Enough to last a week, maybe more if he rationed it out.

“I—I have 500 credits.” He dug them out of his wallet. Most people on this side of town didn’t carry omni tools. Kaidan held them out for her to see.

Her eyes widened. “Christ. This what you normally give her?”

Kaidan nodded.

“No wonder your Jane skipped town.” Her hand closed over his, and she licked her lips. “I…I can make you a better deal.” She smiled, but it didn’t reach her eyes.

Opening his mouth to make what he hoped was a polite refusal, Kaidan felt his biotics buzz as they interacted with a nearby field.

The girl jumped back, her face going white. “You’re one of those _freaks_.” She swallowed hard, pacing back and forth. “I should’ve known.”

“I’m a _biotic_ , thank you. And like you should talk. I felt the field coming off of you. You’re one of us too.”

“Am not!” Her eyes flashed blue, as if to prove his point.

“Not a very strong one, though. What amp do you have?” Kaidan ducked behind her, trying to see what she had plugged into her port.

“What the hell are you doing, Alenko?” She backed against the wall, holding the back of her neck.

Kaidan blinked. “You don’t have one.”  She looked young enough for an L3. “How do you not have an implant?”

She shook, her eyes flaring again with fury. “Not all of us have a rich Alliance officer for a daddy.”

“You know my dad?” God, Kaidan hoped not. He did _not_ want to imagine his dad hanging around the Tenth Street Reds and all they had to offer.

“Major Kaidan Alenko, right? I’ve seen him in the newspaper.” She gave him a once over. “You look a lot like him. You must be Junior.”

“Just Kaidan, if you don’t mind.” He cleared his throat. “You never told me yours.”

She shrugged. “You can call me Jane. Everyone else does.”

“Must get confusing.” Kaidan started to laugh, then he saw the look in her eyes. “You uh…going to sell me the sand or not?”

She fiddled with the bag again. _Sand._ His head pounded like a loud drum. _Sand._  “How’d a good kid like you get into this junk?” She approached the bed, sitting on the edge of it.

“Does it matter?” Kaidan didn’t really want to get into it. He was so damn _tired_ of talking about _it_.

“Was it a party? Some cute girl at Jump Zero?”

“Don’t _talk_ to me about Jump Zero.” He snapped.

Jane flinched a little, but she didn’t back away. She grabbed his hand. “I can see the red dust under your finger nails. The red lines in your eyes.”  Her thumb traced his. “You’ve been doing this for a couple months. If you stop now you won’t feel it the rest of your life.”

“You are the _worst_ drug dealer I’ve ever seen.”

Laughing, Jane stood up, pulling the chair away from the door. “I’m not a drug dealer.” She pulled the door open, motioning for him to leave. “Used to run the stuff, but you know.” Jane shrugged it off, her eyes distant. “Times change.”

Later, Kaidan found half his credits back in his pocket. How Jane snuck them in there without him noticing, he could never figure out.

Years later, Captain David Anderson introduces him to the famous (infamous?) Commander Shepard on their first day on the Normandy. She smiles at him warmly, her red bangs swept neatly from her face. Probably not within regs, but when you survive Akuze, maybe they let you get away with more. Kaidan shakes her hand, and he feels a familiar biotic field. It’s stronger this time around. Probably thanks to her L3 implant.

“Pleasure to meet you, Lieutenant.”

Kaidan’s jaw drops ever so slightly, and he manages to shut it before Anderson notices. Faces he never remembered, but Kaidan would never forget the sound of her voice.  



End file.
